Synopsis: As Piccolo falls to the ground unconscious after the failed attack on Nappa, the brutish Saiyan is disappointed that not even the strongest fighter standing against him can take more than one blow from him. Turning to Kuririn and Gohan next, Nappa decides to attack Gohan first, telling him that he expects a good fight since he has Saiyan blood in him, even if it does come from a coward like Kakarot. Nappa viciously kicks Gohan into the air before swiping him into a nearby rock pillar. As Gohan struggles back to his feet, Nappa praises him and tells him to fight and die like a true Saiyan.
As Nappa tries to rush in to attack Gohan again, Kuririn gets the drop on him, knocking the Saiyan back with a quick punch. As he flies towards Nappa for another however, he barely manages to dodge Nappa's retaliatory punch, and backflips away, annoying Nappa but causing Vegeta to praise him as being nimble if nothing else. Nappa angrily charges at Kuririn, who quickly thrusts a palm into the air above his head and forms a large energy disc. Kuririn throws the Kienzan (Circle of Ki) attack at Nappa, who taunts him and prepares to take the attack head on. Vegeta yells at Nappa to dodge however, and Nappa tilts his head out of the way just in time, and the Kienzan is shown flying past him and cutting the top off of an entire mountain. As Nappa's cheek is also shown to have been cut by Kuririn's Kienzan, Vegeta curses his fellow Saiyan for not using his head. An enraged Nappa throws an energy blast at Kuririn in retaliation, and though Kuririn is able to dodge the blast, the resulting explosion it causes catches him and injures him. Still in the midair, Kuririn is about to receive a second direct blast from Nappa, when the Saiyan himself receives a powerful blast to the small of his back from an awakened Piccolo. Nappa is outraged and can't believe that Piccolo is tougher than he looks, causing Vegeta to laugh at him as Piccolo warns them both that the Earth won't go down so easily. Nappa angrily tells Piccolo that he only took it easy on him because they need him to tell them about the Dragon Balls, but Piccolo's attention is quickly diverted away from his opponent. Piccolo says he can sense a tremendous energy approaching them, a power that Gohan can also feel and says feels familiar. Vegeta notices this reaction from the two of them, and although Nappa says he's getting tired of their tricks, Piccolo is certain – Goku is on his way at last. Review: With Piccolo down and out, Nappa specifically turns his attention to the next in line, poor little Gohan. If I didn't know any better, I'd almost think Nappa was trying to take them down in order of perceived power at this point – granted, he attacked Tenshinhan first earlier, and the only reason he took Piccolo down first this time was due to Piccolo being the one closest to him, so it's probably just a coincidence. Either way, Nappa definitely seems to enjoy the pain he's causing, so I can imagine him enjoying the fear he's putting into Kuririn by leaving him for last. While Vegeta as a character will later go on to definitely make 'Saiyan Pride' a whole thing (and believe me, we WILL be talking about that later), Nappa seems to have his own weird version of it as well. He certainly seems to expect something of a fight out of Gohan based purely on his Saiyan heritage, even though he hasn't seen the kid do a single thing yet and he doesn't think much of Kakarot for his Saiyan blood either. Gohan for his part does get back up after the initial attack, but it's hard to say for sure if he's fully broken out of his shell and planning to fight back just yet or not. You know who is planning to fight back and has had more than enough of this shit though? Kuririn! We've seen him flip back and forth between anger and fear throughout the course of this fight, and while some would probably call that unbalanced, I'd say it makes sense in the scope of the situation he's stuck in. Also, my boy gets not one but TWO unique new attacks this arc, and this one even gets a name! The Kienzan is definitely one of the more unique energy attacks in the series, right up there with the Mankankosappo or Sokidan, in that there's more to it's workings than just 'firing a laser' as it were. In effect, it seems to be far more effective than the Mankankosappo too – the Kienzan seemingly takes almost no time to charge, and it's capable of hurting opponents far stronger than it's user. It's made pretty evident that, if Nappa hadn't dodged, Kuririn would have just taken him out of the equation by cutting him in half. The Kienzan's potency has also lead to a lot of debate in the fandom about how there's a clearly easy-win combo that the characters don't take advantage of – blind the opponent with a Taiyoken, then throw a Kienzan at them to cut them in half, and done. Realistically I can see how you'd think this would come up at least once, but overall I think this is another issue where people are looking for realistic decisions that wouldn't work towards making an interesting story. If that was how they solved every problem, then this would be a boring as hell series to read, don't you think? I've said it before, and I'll say it again – entertainment shouldn't always be held to the whims of practicality, not if the story will result as a consequence of doing so. Kuririn's attack manages to do just enough in the end though, as his annoyance of Nappa distracted the big brute just long enough for Piccolo to get back on his feet and to land a powerful attack of his own on him. All of these flies buzzing around and biting at Nappa is great fun for a watching Vegeta, but it's definitely starting to get on the bigger Saiyan's nerves more than it's actually doing lasting damage to him. Nappa being far stronger than them is still very much an insurmountable problem for our heroes. Just as things are looking to get really bad again however, our heroes can finally feel Goku's power and know that he's back on Earth. Help is on the way at last, but the question still remains – will it be enough? Until next time! Favorite Panel:
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About the AuthorAspiring author and big anime/manga fan, just trying to do my best in the world. For more details, go to About Me. Archives
September 2022
Categories
All
|